BachBeat
The Newsletter of the Bach Cantata Choir
April 2009
Artistic Director
Ralph Nelson
Accompanist
John Vergin
Board of Directors
President
Ralph Nelson
Secretary
Maureen Diamond
Treasurer
Julie Beck
Members at Large
Barbara Lance
Susan Nelson
Woody Richen
Lorin Wilkerson
The Bach Cantata Choir is
a legally organized nonprofit corporation under
Oregon law and is a
registered 501(c)(3)
corporation with the IRS.
Donations to the choir are
fully deductible for income
tax purposes.
Newsletter
Editors
Lorin Wilkerson
[email protected]
Wayne Carlon
Layout & Photography
Kristin Sterling
The BachBeat newsletter
is published cyclically by
the Bach Cantata Choir.
www.bachcantatachoir.org
Vol.2, No.4
Mendelssohn and
the Bach Revival
By Katherine Lefever*
After the death of J.S. Bach, as new
musical tastes favored the gallant, tuneful
Classical style, his compositions fell out of
favor. By 1809, the year Felix Men
Mendelssohn was born, the reputation of
Bach’s sons Carl Philipp Emanuel and
Wilhelm Friedemann had overshadowed
that of their father. The
extent to which Bach’s
music was genuinely “re
“rediscovered” in the nine
nineteenth century has been a
subject of much debate.
Certainly
nly his pedagogical
method had not fallen out of
favor and keyboard students
were still assigned his
preludes and fugues. Felix
and Fanny Mendelssohn’s
music education can be
traced directly back to the
master—their
their teacher Carl Friedrich
Zelter had studi
studied composition with a
man who had studied with C.P.E. Bach,
second son of the elder Bach.1 Zelter
educated the young Mendelssohns in
Bachian counterpoint and exposed them
scores of several Bach cantatas, difficult to
come by at that time.2 To the romantics,
J.S. Bach’s music was not unknown, but
obscure: “the object of esoteric rather
than general interest.” 3 Bach’s choral
music was among the least known of his
compositional output and Mendelssohn’s
historic performance of the Matthäus
Passion (1727) was the first since the
composer’s death in 1750.
In post-revolutionary
revolutionary Europe, the
arts patronage that had offered Bach,
Haydn and Mozart such security was
gone.
Although Prussia remained a
monarchy, aristocratic German families
had less wealth and influence
influ
than ever
before. The rise of the middle class
created a new market for composers,
allowing them to specialize in a medium
of their choice (song for Schubert,
keyboard music for Chopin,
for example), rather than
compose at the will of their
patron. Mass production
meant that both sheet music
and musical instruments
were more widely available
and amateur performance
was on the rise, both in the
home and in newly founded
choral
and
orchestral
organizations. The Berlin
Singakademie that Mendelssohn conducted
co
in the
St. Matthew Passion was one such
organization. By 1829 Mendelssohn had
completed his first symphony and his
famous incidental music to A Midsummer
Night’s Dream.. While widely known as a
musical prodigy, he had yet to establish a
reputation as a conductor. Given both
the place he was in his career and the
predominant view of Bach’s music as
antiquated, choosing to promote the
works of the long dead composer was “an
odd choice for a young man embarking
on a career as a composer.”4
Member Spotlight
Lorin Wilkerson – Bass
Lorin Wilkerson has been a musician as long as he can
remember; he began learning piano informally from his
father at age 5, and sang in church from childhood
through his early twenties. He graduated from Portland
State with a degree in Russian Language and Literature,
and studied music in college for years. In addition to
piano and voice, he plays a number of instruments
including early
rly claviers, harmonica and mandolin, and
was once timpanist/principal percussionist with the
Central Oregon Symphony under Dr. Charles Heiden.
He very recently began studying the viola da gamba with
Douglas Laing, and is currently working on trying to no
not
make the instrument moo like a cow.
Lorin joined the BCC in February 2007 and its board the
following season. In addition to singing bass with the
BCC, he sings baritone
ne with the Portland Symphonic
Choir
hoir and occasionally plays harpsichord for
performancess with those musical hooligans of Classical
Revolution Portland (or CRPDXers, as they are more
commonly known.)
Lorin also loves writing about his two main passions in
life: music and craft beer. Lorin writes for and edits
BachBeat, he is active as a critic with Northwest Reverb
Reverb,
a blog covering classical music in the Pacific Northwest,
he maintains his own (unfortunately too-rarely
rarely updated)
blog, Musical Oozings, and he writes about beer and
music for Primer online magazine.
Lorin first began to truly lovee the music of J.S. Bach as a
teenager; after being exposed to the Well-Tempered
Tempered
Clavier on the radio and hearing a brass rendition of the
well-known chorale from Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, he
was sure that J.S. Bach must have been the greatest
musician who ever lived, and nothing that has transpired
in Lorin’s life since has convinced him otherwise.
Yet Mendelssohn’s revival came at an ideal time for
securing Bach’s position as a national treasure. Nationalist
sentiment was on the rise and 1830 was the 300th
anniversary of the Augsburg Confession and the founding
of Lutheranism. There was an increased interest in
preserving and celebrating great German works, of
codifying a musical canon much like what Goethe and
others had done for German literature in the early part of
the nineteenth century. What is now seen as a major
historical revival began as a small gathering of about
sixteen reading through the St. Matthew Passion at the
Mendelssohn home.5 Felix and his friend, the actor
Eduard Devrient began to talk seriously about a
performance some time late in 1828. In his memoirs,
Devrient writes about the morning he roused the
composer and the two of them went to inform Zelter of
their plan. 6
The extent of Zelter’s role in the revival has been a
controversial
ersial issue for music historians. After MenMen
delssohn’s death, there were some who argued that Zelter
had more involvement behind the scenes than he had
previously received credit for. After all, Mendelssohn
would never have been exposed to Bach’s choral music
had it not been for his teacher, and the score Felix used
had been prepared by Zelter from Bach’s original
performing parts. 7 But it was not Zelter who spearspear
headed the revival, despite his genuine enthusiasm for
Bach—indeed,
indeed, he seems to have been opposed to the idea
of performing the St. Matthew Passion,
Passion perhaps believing
that the piece would not be appreciated or understood, or
that it was too long and too difficult for an amateur group
like the Singakademie to pull off. Ultimately, rather than
the master it was two indefatigable youngsters that
restored Bach to prominence.
Once Zelter had given his consent, the hall was
reserved and formal rehearsals commenced. Both the
choir and orchestra were predominantly comprised of
amateur musicians. Mendelssohn
delssohn conducted from the
piano and Devrient sang the role of Christ. Significant
cuts were made to the work, removing ten arias and
almost half of the choruses.8 Various explanations have
been offered for Mendelssohn’s choices—some
choices
have
argued he deliberately
rately excluded texts that could be
interpreted as anti-Semitic,
Semitic, others that the parts he
omitted were musically redundant. It seems likely that
many of these cuts were practical: the St. Matthew Passion
clocks in at well over three hours when presented in its
entirety.
In stark contrast to its premiere as part of a Good
Friday church service, on March 11, 1829 the St. Matthew
Passion was performed to a sold out hall. Many were
turned away at the door. Among those in attendance were
the poet Heine, the philosopher Hegel, and possibly
Paganini. Fanny wrote that “the most solemn reverence
seized the gathering” and that the feeling in the concert
hall was one of both devotion and awe that this glorious
music could have come “from old Bach.”9 With one
performance at the tender age of twenty, Mendelssohn
had established his reputation not only as a conductor, but
as a leading figure in the historical revival movement.10
The performance is still considered to be one of the most
significant concerts in the history of German music. ♪
* Katherine
Lefever is a graduate of Reed College where she
studied music history, vocal performance and foreign languages.
While her area of interest is primarily the romantic and early
modern periods, she has always loved performing and studying
baroque music.
Katherine sings with the Portland Symphonic Choir and works in
the Membership Department at All Classical FM.
Mercer-Taylor, Peter. The Life of Mendelssohn. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2000, p 34. Fasch was the founder of
the Berlin Singakademie.
2 Applegate, Celia. Bach in Berlin. Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
2005, p. 204.
3 Applegate, p. 14.
4 Applegate, p. 19.
5 Todd, R. Larry. Mendelssohn: A Life in Music. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2003, p. 193.
6 Todd, p. 194.
7 Mercer-Taylor, p. 74.
8 Todd, p. 196.
9 Fanny Mendelssohn quoted in Applegate, pp. 34 and 41.
10 Mercer-Taylor, p. 75.
1
William Billings (1746–1800)
By Lorin Wilkerson – Bass
William Billings was a prototypical ‘do-it-yourself
American original.’ He was a unique man both physically
and from a personality standpoint: he was blind in one
eye and had limited use of his arms and legs, and was wellknown for his addiction to copious amounts of snuff. He
was not known for his humility: Billings singlehandedly set
out to re-make the landscape of American
choral music without any formal musical
training, and once said that there was
nothing connected with the science of
music that he had not mastered.
Initially a tanner by trade, he reportedly grew exasperated with the stodgy
psalmody of the Boston Congregationalist
churches he attended, and at an early age
began composing and teaching singing.
Entirely self-taught, he eschewed formal
musical training (for himself) and learned
what he knew through singing and studying
works from various British and colonial
schools of singing. He jotted down notes
and rough sketches of his works on the
walls and hides in the tannery where he
worked.
He soon opened a music shop and turned full-time to
composition and vocal pedagogy, and in 1770 he
published The New England Psalm Singer, the first volume in
history entirely devoted to songs by an American choral
composer. Billings was known for patriotic sentiment:
his good friend Paul Revere engraved the frontispiece for
the Psalm Singer, and Samuel Adams sang for many years in
one of Billings’ choirs. Billings would go on to publish
several more seminal compilations of hymns, psalms and
‘fuguing tunes,’ (songs written in simplistic imitative
polyphony) culminating in The Continental Harmony in 1794.
Billings’ go-it-alone attitude and the cultural isolation
of the American colonies from European trends led to the
development of a (sometimes intentionally) primitive style
of composition: stark, open harmonies and sharp
rhythmic punctuations were a hallmark of
his work. His hymn ‘Chester’ (beginning:
‘Let tyrants shake their iron rod’) was
beloved by Continental soldiers during the
Revolutionary War. Although his songs
were extremely well-known, the poor state
of copyright law in the colonies and later in
the young nation assured that despite the
popularity of his work, Billings died a
pauper, having earned hardly a penny from
his voluminous compositional output.
His legacy has endured in many ways.
Tunes from The New England Psalm Singer
soon made their way south and west, and
formed an important part of the rudiments
of shape-note singing of the rural American
south.
Even though his style was
outmoded soon after his death, Billings’ hymns also
endured long in the churches of rural New England. The
Old Stoughton Musical Society in Stoughton, MA, was
founded by Billings in 1774, and has continued
uninterrupted to this day. It is the oldest musical society
and first singing school in American history. Billings was
inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. ♪
Principal Sources: Wikipedia.org, answers.com, Songwriters Hall of
Fame.
Photo Gallery
Elise Groves (soprano), Elizabeth Farquhar (alto), Mark Woodward (tenor), and Uwe
Haefker (bass) perform Cantata #131 Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, su dir
Be a Concert Sponsor
You may wonder “How well is that free
free-concertapproach working?”
Pretty well—we
we have consistently covered our
expenses—but
but we could use more sponsors. A sponsor
is an individual or group who donates $1000 for a
concert. Sponsors are can be recognized on the front
page of the program and they may make a dedication.
The $1000 covers about 20% of the cost of a
concert, with other costs covered by contributions from
the choir members, audience free-will
will offerings at each
concert and general fundraising.
If you’d like to learn more, please contact us
through our website: www.bachcantatachoir.org
www.bachcantatachoir.org.
BACH CANTATA CHOIR
3570 NE MATHISON PLACE
PORTLAND OR 97212
www.bachcantatachoir.org
Don’t miss our
final concert
of the season!
Sunday, April 26 at 2:00 pm
Paul Pitken, oboe soloist
Thanks for a Great Season
Our final concert of the 2008-09
2008
season will be
Sunday, April 26, featuring works from Mendelssohn,
Billings, and of course, our beloved J.S. Bach.
Announcements regarding
ing our 2009-10
2009
season will
be mailed this summer and posted on our website:
www.bachcantatachoir.org.
All Bach Cantata Choir concerts are held at the
Rose City Park Presbyterian Church, located in the
Hollywood district at 1907 NE 45th Avenue, Portland,
Oregon
regon (corner of NE Sandy Boulevard and NE 45th
Avenue). Concerts are free (free-will
(free
offering accepted)
unless advertised otherwise.